1. Field of the Invention
The various embodiments described herein relate generally to an electronic system, and more particularly to a flow control device and a cooled electronic system.
2. Background of the Related Art
Various electronic systems related to information technology (for example, a personal computer or high-end server) have significantly improved as a result of active research. However, some components (for example, a central processing unit (CPU), memory device, and so on) in the electronic systems generate lots of heat and require cooling to dissipate the heat generated during operation. Cooling fans and heat sinks are typically used inside the electronic systems for heat dissipation damage to the system due to overheating may be prevented.
Generally, cooling air flows generated by one or more fan assemblies are forced through the electronic system, thereby helping to cool the components inside electronic systems. The forced air flow may bypass some components and/or flow over other components. The above operation may be achieved via an air baffle mechanism or other similar mechanisms. For example, the air flow through the electronic systems may be controlled and routed to certain regions, such as the fins of the heat sink. The paths of the above air flow control and routing operations are typically referred as channels.
For some electronic systems, such as high-density systems, a multiprocessor architecture is often used. The design may, for example, comprise the design of two half-wide boards using two processors (which work independently in a chassis) or the design using four processors. Regarding the design using two processors, a heat dissipation module using dual thermal channels may be used for heat dissipation. The heat dissipation module using dual thermal channels may comprise a first heat sink, a second heat sink, a fixedly arranged air baffle, and one or more cooling fans. The one or more cooling fans provide air flows respectively to the first heat sink and the second heat sink for heat dissipation. The fixedly arranged air baffle distributes the air flows from the one or more fans respectively to the first heat sink and the second heat sink. The air flows may be guided to the electronic components (for example, the top positions of the processors) via the channels. Thus, the heat generated during operation may be discharged outside of the system to achieve the purpose of heat dissipation.
In a system having a multiprocessor architecture, it is typical that some processors may not operate at a given point in time. For example, in a dual-processor architecture, there are at least two situations for the processors: both processors are in operation or only one processor is in operation. The speed of the one or more fans may be raised for fully coping with the above two situation. However, when only one processor is in operation, raising the speed of the one or more fans will result in a waste of energy.
In addition, raising the speed of the one or more fans in order to support the above situations (even with only one processor in operation) will also results in making louder noise.